Nice 5 Day Itinerary

Title: 5-Day Itinerary for Exploring Nice, France

Nice does not have a single grain of sand on its main beaches. Every one of them is smooth river pebble, “galets,” hauled in from the Var and Paillon rivers, and nobody warns first-timers before they show up in flip-flops and regret it within ten steps. Pack water shoes before anything else on this list.

Day 1: Arrival & Orientation

  • Arrive at Nice Cote d’Azur International Airport. Skip any advice about a Navigo pass, that is Paris’s transit card, not Nice’s. Here the network is Lignes d’Azur, and Tram Line 2 runs directly from both terminals into the city center in twenty to thirty minutes for 1.70 euros, cheaper and usually faster than a taxi at this time of day.
  • Check into your hotel. Anything near the old town or Rue de France puts you within walking distance of most of what matters this week.
  • Afternoon: explore Vieille Ville, the old town. Climb Colline du Chateau for the view over the bay, wander Place Rossetti, and browse the produce and flower stalls at Cours Saleya market before the afternoon heat sets in.
  • Evening: dinner at a proper Nicoise restaurant serving socca, the chickpea flour pancake sold from street carts as much as sit-down places, and salade nicoise made with raw vegetables and tuna rather than the cooked, mayo-heavy versions served elsewhere. My opinion: order socca from a street stall over a restaurant plate. It is meant to be eaten hot and a little charred, straight off the griddle.

Day 2: Beaches & the Promenade

  • Morning: pick a beach and rent a lounger and umbrella for the day, usually somewhere between 20 and 40 euros depending on how close to the water and how central you are. Bring a padded mat if you plan to sit directly on the pebbles at one of the free public stretches instead, of which Nice has more than twenty spread over roughly seven kilometers of coast.
  • The tradeoff for the pebbles is genuinely clear water and a fast drop-off, you are swimming within a couple of steps rather than wading out over sandbars.
  • Afternoon: walk the Promenade des Anglais, then detour up to Castle Hill again if you skipped the far end yesterday, or visit the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, an unexpectedly ornate onion-domed building a short walk from the train station.
  • Evening: dinner near the harbor or back around Cours Saleya, which turns from a produce market by day into a strip of restaurant terraces by night.

Day 3: Monaco, Properly

  • Morning: take the train from Nice-Ville station to Monaco, a genuinely short hop at around 22 minutes and some of the cheapest rail fares on the coast. Trains run constantly through the day, so there is no need to plan around a fixed departure.
  • See the Prince’s Palace changing of the guard if the timing lines up, the Oceanographic Museum built into the cliffside, and the Jardin Exotique for cactus gardens with a view straight down over the principality. The Monte Carlo Casino’s gaming rooms require a ticket and a dress code even for non-gamblers who just want to look inside.
  • Afternoon: back in Nice, visit the Musee Marc Chagall, purpose-built around his biblical-themed paintings, or walk the Promenade du Paillon, the long garden that replaced a covered river through the city center.
  • Evening: dinner around Rue de France or Rue Bonaparte. A harborside table with a Mediterranean-leaning menu is the move here if you want the view to do some of the work.

Day 4: Cannes and the Art Museums

  • Morning: train to Cannes, about 20 to 30 minutes depending on the service, and walk the Boulevard de la Croisette past the Palais des Festivals where the film festival red carpet actually unrolls every May.
  • Cannes’ beaches skew more manicured and see fewer free public sections than Nice’s, so treat it as a walking and window-shopping stop rather than a swimming detour unless you have booked a private beach club in advance.
  • Afternoon: back in Nice, visit the Musee Matisse, set in a Genoese villa surrounded by olive trees, or MAMAC for modern and contemporary work including a strong collection of Nouveau Realisme pieces by artists who worked in Nice itself.
  • Evening: dinner around Rue St Francois de Paule or Place Garibaldi. Book ahead for anywhere with outdoor seating in high season, tables disappear fast after 8pm.

Day 5: Departure

  • Morning and early afternoon: last souvenirs at Cours Saleya market, Avenue Jean Medecin for regular shopping, or Rue Paradis for the higher-end boutiques.
  • Head to the airport with time to spare. Tram Line 2 runs the return leg just as easily as the arrival, though note the airport’s ticket machines only sell the round-trip fare, not the single 1.70 euro ticket, so buy your outbound ticket in the city before you need it.

Things to Know:

  • All of Nice’s beaches are pebble, not sand. Water shoes solve most of the discomfort and cost very little from seafront vendors.
  • Lignes d’Azur, not Navigo, is the local transit brand covering Nice’s buses and trams.
  • Trains along the coast to Monaco and Cannes are frequent, cheap, and generally more reliable than driving in summer traffic.

Transportation:

  • Tram Line 2 connects the airport to the city center in twenty to thirty minutes for the price of a single bus ticket.
  • SNCF regional trains handle the Monaco and Cannes day trips well, both under half an hour each way.
  • Walking covers almost everything within the old town and along the promenade.

Tips:

  • Buy your Lignes d’Azur ticket before you get to the airport if you want the cheap single fare rather than the round-trip-only machine there.
  • Reserve dinner tables in high season, especially anywhere with a terrace.
  • Bring water shoes for the beach. It is the single most useful thing you can pack for Nice specifically.